German text / This dissertation is a selective literary investigation (25 items) by a qualitative social research. It aims on the pastoral training and pastoral care of the Swiss theologian Eduard Thurneysen (1888-1974). His conception of pastoral care was directive within the 20th century in the German speaking Protestant church. In front of this background the pneumatological and spiritual elements are investigated that shape the pastoral approach of Thurneysen, both in theory and in practice. The research design for doing this is an adapted document analysis. For data collection, processing and analysis four different protocols are developed and for each item collected (attachement). In pneumatological and spiritual regard the main results are that Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt shaped and influenced Thurneysen fundamentally. He has been his lifelong example. Thurneysens pastoral approach is analogically characterized by continous prayer and longing for Holy Spirit. In the conclusions of the research results there are fourteen reflections on e. g. sustainability, finality or the ongoing discussion with the social sciences concerning a biblically oriented pastoral care. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M. Th. (Practical Theology)

AFRIKAANS: Die Belhar Belydenis was sedert sy ontstaan in 1982 ‘n omstrede dokument in die NG Kerkfamilie. Ná die Kerkbode-debat in 1998, is Belhar al hoe meer gesien as ‘n struikelblok in die weg van eenwording. Denke oor die Belydenis het gepolariseer tussen diegene wat dit aanvaar as konfessie teenoor diegene wat dit nie aanvaar nie. Besware wat teen die Belydenis ingebring is, het te make met sy ontstaansgeskiedenis, sy status as konfessie en inhoudelike besware. Die negatiewe persepsies oor die Belhar Belydenis is diep gewortel. In hierdie studie word ‘n derde posisie voorgestel, naamlik dat die missionêre waarde van die Belhar Belydenis vir die NG Kerk genoeg rede is om die inhoud van die belydenis te ontgin, ongeag of die belydenis as konfessie aanvaar word of nie. Deur ‘n bestudering van die sendingbenadering en –beleid in die NG Kerk as historiese aanloop tot die Belhar Belydenis, word die belang van inheemswording in terme van die missie van die kerk uitgelig. Die NG Kerk het ‘n sendingbeleid rondom die negentiende-eeuse Europese teologie van inheemswording ontwikkel wat bygedra het tot die ontstaan van afsonderlike kleur-bepaalde kerke. Hierdie beleid van inheemswording het bygedra tot ‘n versmelting van kerk en volk by die Afrikaner, met ‘n verdere gevolg van toenemende isolasie, ‘n geloofwaardigheidskrisis en ‘n missionêre gevangenskap. Dit vorm die missionêre agtergrond van die Belhar Belydenis. Ongelukkig het die NG Kerk die belydenis baie negatief ontvang – saam met ‘n aanklag van kettery en afgodery. Selfs te midde van hierdie negatiewe persepsie van die Belhar Belydenis, het die belydenis nogtans ‘n vormende en bevrydende invloed uitgeoefen op die sending van die kerk tot op hede, weereens: missionêre waarde. Die leemte in die inheemswording van die NG Kerk is dat dit tot volks-inheemswording beperk was. ‘n Nasionale inheemswording-benadering word uitgewys as ‘n meer relevante uitdrukking van die missie van die kerk in Suid-Afrika, met ‘n Suid-Afrikaanse Gereformeerde kerk as oogmerk. In terme hiervan is die Belhar Belydenis ‘n instrument tot inheemswording vir die hele NG Kerk-familie. Belhar is nie die struikelblok in die weg van eenwording nie. In die herenigingsgesprekke het ‘n inwendige teenstrydigheid ontstaan, en dít is die werklike struikelblok. Verskillende benaderings tot belydenisse bring verskillende beoordelings van Belhar mee. Karl Barth se teologie van Gereformeerde belydenisse dui op ‘n derde weg uit die hereniging-dilemma. Die aanvaarding van ‘n belydenis in die Gereformeerde benadering geskied altyd in vryheid, want Gereformeerdes staan onder gesag van die Skrif en Christus alleen. Die gesag wat die Kerk aan ‘n belydenis toeken word nie ontken nie, maar eerder ontgin. Die studie sluit af met riglyne vir die ontginning van die missionêre waarde van die Belhar Belydenis, gegrond op 14 onderhoude met teoloë uit die NG Kerk en VGKSA. Die onderhoude word weergegee as stimulasie tot gesprek tussen die lede van die NG Kerk-familie, veral tussen die NG Kerk en die VGKSA. Die studie eindig met enkele praktiese riglyne vir leraars en gemeenteleiers wat die missionêre waarde van die Belhar Belydenis wil ontgin deur ‘n oop en eerlike gesprek oor die Belhar Belydenis. ‘n Verwysingsbron van aktuele temas in die Belhar Belydenis word as hulpmiddel gegee. ENGLISH: Since its inception in 1982, the Belhar Confession has been a controversial document in family of Dutch Reformed Churches. After the debate in Die Kerkbode (1998), Belhar was progressively seen as an obstacle in the way of church unity. Opinion on the Confession polarized between those who accepted Belhar as their confession and others who did not want to accept it altogether. Objections on Belhar has to do with factors surrounding its inception, its status as confession and objections on certain textual formulations. The negative perceptions of the Belhar Confession is deep rooted. This study proposes a third position, namely that the missionary value of the Belhar Confession reason enough gives to make use of the contents of the Confession, irrespective of whether it is accepted as confession or not. Through a study of the missionary approach and policy of the Dutch Reformed Churches, the importance of indigenization as mission of the church is highlighted. The Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) developed its missionary policy based on nineteenth century European theology of indigenization. This policy of indigenization, however, contributed to the formation of separate churches determined by colour. This policy of indigenization also contributed to a fusion of church and “volk” (indigenous people) of the “Afrikaner”, further resulting in isolation, a crisis of credibility and a missional imprisonment in die DRC. This is the missional background of the Belhar Confession. The DRC, however, had a very negative reception of the Confession, since it was accompanied by a charge of heresy and idolatry against this church. Nevertheless, even in the midst of this negative perception of Belhar, the Confession still had a formative influence on the mission of the church until now: hence its missional value. The shortfall in the indigenization of the DRC is that it was confined to “volks”-indigenization. A national indigenization approach is shown to be a more relevant expression of the mission of the church in South Africa, with a South African Reformed Church as objective. In terms of this, the Belhar Confession is an instrument of indigenization for the whole DRC-family. Belhar is not an obstacle in the way of church unity. In the re-unification talks, an internal contradiction appeared, which is the actual obstacle. Different approaches to confessions lead to different evaluations of Belhar. Karl Barth’s theology of Reformed confessions points to a third way out of the dilemma of the re-unification process. In the Reformed approach, the acceptance of a confession is always voluntary, because the reformed believer is only under the authority of Christ and his Word (Scripture). The authority that the church gives to a confession is not denied, but rather discovered. The study concludes with a contemporary reading of the Belhar Confession, based on 14 interviews with theologians in the DRC and the Uniting Reformed Church. These interviews are presented to stimulate a conversation between members of the DRC-family, especially between die DRC and the Uniting Reformed Church. At the end of the study, some practical guidelines are given for church leaders and pastors who wish to make use of the missional value of Belhar by facilitating and organizing an open and honest dialogue between members of the DRC-family. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Science of Religion and Missiology / unrestricted

Introduction: Diagnosing inborn metabolic diseases, as a large subgroup of rare diseases, due to their rarity and wide variety of clinical manifestations, can be demanding and often prolonged. Objective: The aim of this work is, with the regard to clinical, biochemical and genetical aspects of selected rare diseases, to contribute to their rapid detection, widen the features of the natural course of the disease and contribute to their preventability. Material: This work includes cohort studies of patiens with cardiac manifestations in mitochondrial diseases, namely a group of 48 patients with TMEM70 protein deficiency, a group of 4 patients with Barth syndrome and individual cases of rare mitochondrial cardiomyopathies, thimidine kinase 2 deficiency and alanyl tRNA synthetase 2 deficiency. By determining the frequency, severity and type of heart disease, the phenotype was expanded, and the design of a therapeutic algorithm then made a positive impact on the prognosis of these patients. The work is also focused on the role of cardiac disease in the differential diagnosis of other genetically determined rare diseases, Marfan's syndrome and especially Pompe disease, where the emphasis is on early diagnosis, mainly due to the existence of an effective therapy. Focus on a broader differential diagnosis...

La recherche effectuée pour cette thèse a pour but d’établir que c’est en développant, dans la Dogmatique de 1925, une interprétation christologique de l’histoire, interprétation dont l’objectif était de résoudre théologiquement, mais autrement que Barth, le problème posé par Troeltsch à partir de la critique, par l’histoire des religions, de la prétention du christia-nisme à l’absoluité, que Tillich a posé les fondements de sa réflexion future sur la rencontre du christianisme avec les religions. Dès lors, la réflexion élaborée dans les années soixante, loin de représenter un tournant dans la pensée de Tillich, comme on l’a trop souvent laissé entendre, suite aux déclarations de Mircea Eliade, en constitue plutôt l’un des fruits les plus mûrs, susceptible d’apporter une contribution à la fois originale et non encore entrevue, à la recherche contemporaine en théologie des religions

Today, some twelve million immigrants are unlawfully present in the United States. What response to this situation does Christian theology suggest for these immigrants and those who receive them? To this question about the status of immigrants before the law, the theological literature lacks an understanding of how federal U.S. immigration law developed, and it lacks a robust theological account of the governance of immigration. To fill this gap, the thesis presents three stages in the formation of the laws that designate some immigrants as aliens unlawfully present or illegal aliens, drawing out the moral argumentation in each phase and responding with moral theology. In the first stage, non-citizens were called aliens in U.S. law. In response to the argument that aliens exist as a consequence of natural law, Christian teaching indicates that immigrants are not alien either in creation or for the church. In the second stage, the authority of the federal government to exclude and expel aliens was established, leaving those who do not comply to be designated illegal aliens. To the claim that the federal government has unlimited sovereignty over immigration, interpretations of the Christian Scriptures respond that divine sovereignty limits and directs civil authority over immigration. In the third stage, legal reforms that were intended to end discrimination between countries allowed millions from countries neighboring the U.S. to become illegal aliens. These reforms turn out to be unjust on philosophical grounds and unneighborly on theological grounds. While federal law classes many as aliens unlawfully present in the United States, Christian political theology indicates that immigrants are not alien, the government of immigration is limited by divine judgment, and nationals of neighboring countries deserve special regard.

The question I address is: how might a theology of authority be conceived in the light of questions raised by what is termed 'post-modernity'? Is it possible to articulate a theology of authority coming to the church community 'from God' that avoids an oppressive and alienating heteronomy? The thesis explores the question of authority as of vital importance in the sociological dimension of religion, calling for legitimisation (in light of claims made for itself) and as obligatory in the theological sphere. For this reason the project involves two methodologies (theological and sociological/ethnographic). While this investigation is relevant to all sections of the Christian church, particular attention is paid to Baptist churches in the UK, since they hold a concept in their tradition that I suggest is valuable in answering the question of the thesis, namely that of covenant. Within the Christian tradition there is an inner 'problematic' relating the personal authority of Christ to the forms of institution (church) and text (scripture). I explore this with a brief survey of theological authority as found in the fourfold foundation of scripture, tradition, reason and experience. From this is developed a brief theological and Christological reflection on divine authority and covenant theology as found in Karl Barth and his response to the 'inner problematic'. Within contemporary culture I view authority through the lens of so-called 'postmodernism', identifying four challenges to the notion of 'external authority' (all of which exemplify a move from the external to internal, and objective to subjective approaches to authority). This is further explored by means of qualitative research with one-to-one interviews conducted in a Baptist church in York. This data is reflected upon by means of ethnography and 'judicious narratives', especially in dialogue with material from Guest ('congregational study'), Heelas and Woodhead ('subjectivised-self') and Healy ('theodramatic horizon' and 'practical-prophetic ecclesiology'), providing an intersection between the language of theology and sociology. The concept of church as covenant community is explored in Baptist and (more briefly) Anglican traditions, leading to a constructive proposal that both the inner-church 'problematic' and the 'postmodern' challenge to authority might begin to be resolved with the notion of covenant. It is within this context of relationship, human and divine, that the authoritative and revelatory Word of God, the story that is Christ, is found in community and praxis. Here is a 'triangulating' relationship between authority, story and covenant revealing divine authority in a non-coercive way and relevant to contemporary culture.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Steven Millhauser has been recognized for his abilities as both a novelist and a writer of short fiction. Yet, he has evaded definitive categorization because his fiction does not fit into any one category. Millhauser’s fiction has defied clean categorization specifically because of his regular oscillation between the modes of realism and fantasy. Much of Millhauser’s short fiction contains images of labyrinths: wandering narratives that appear to split off or come to a dead end, massive structures of branching, winding paths and complex mysteries that are as deep and impenetrable as the labyrinth itself. This project aims to specifically explore the presence of labyrinthine elements throughout Steven Millhauser’s short fiction. Millhauser’s labyrinths are either described spatially and/or suggested in his narrative form; they are, in other words, spatial and/or discursive. Millhauser’s spatial labyrinths (which I refer to as ‘architecture’ stories) involve the lengthy description of some immense or underground structure. The structures are fantastic in their size and often seem infinite in scale. These labyrinths are quite literal. Millhauser’s discursive labyrinths demonstrate the labyrinthine primarily through a forking, branching and repetitive narrative form. Millhauser’s use of the labyrinth is at once the same and different than preceding generations of short fiction. Postmodern short fiction in the 1960’s and 70’s used labyrinthine elements to draw the reader’s attention to the story’s textuality. Millhauser, too, writes in the experimental/fantastic mode, but to different ends. The devices of metafiction and realism are employed in his short fiction as agents of investigating and expressing two competing visions of reality. Using the ‘tricks’ and techniques of postmodern metafiction in tandem with realistic detail, Steven Millhauser’s labyrinthine fiction adjusts and reapplies the experimental short story to new ends: real-world applications and thematic expression.